The present invention relates to a semiconductor device manufacturing method and, for example, relates to a semiconductor device manufacturing technology of performing wire bonding by using a wedge.
In a power type semiconductor device, there are cases where an electrode pad of a semiconductor chip and a lead section to be led out to the outside are coupled together by an Al (aluminum) wire in order to reduce an ON resistance. A wire diameter of the Al wire used in this case is, for example, about 200 μm to about μm, that is, is larger than those of an Au (gold) wire and a Cu (copper) wire.
In wire bonding using such a large-diameter Al wire as mentioned above, since it is necessary to also increase an area of a coupling part of the Al wire along which the Al wire is coupled with the lead section, wedge bonding is adopted and a bonding wedge (hereinafter, simply called a wedge) is used as a bonding tool. In wedge bonding, a technology of cutting the wire using a cutter or the like after wire coupling has been performed is known.
Incidentally, the technologies of cutting off the wire by using the cutter in wire bonding are disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. Hei 7(1995)-79062, 2005-353903 and 2002-26058. In addition, a wire bonding technology that wedge bonding is adopted is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei(1990)-44740.